‘The Collection’: Amazon’s Beautiful New Drama About High Fashion and Nazi Collaborators

Imagine a red dress being offensive. But it’s not because of its scandalous cut or its political connotation. Imagine it’s offensive simply because it’s beautiful. In the series premiere of The Collection, a sweet model finds her red dress torn to shreds in a street market for no better reason than she had the gall to wear it in public.

The Collection is Amazon’s latest original drama offering and it gives viewers a look at World War II that most of us have never seen before: the immediate aftermath. Paris, France was a city locked down during the war. The Nazis occupied it and made every effort to trample the spirits of its proud and passionate citizens. The Collection looks at the fight to restore glamour, romance, and normalcy after the siege was over.

At the center of the story is the Sabine family. They’re a clan of couturiers trying to rebuild their fashion house in a city not quite ready for out-and-out opulence. Elder brother Paul Sabine (Richard Coyle) is the public face of the family’s fashion house and will stop at nothing to ensure its success — including (possibly??) collaborating with the Nazis. Mamie Gummer plays his sophisticated wife Helen and Frances de la Tour is his tough-as-nails mother, Yvette. Tom Riley plays the black sheep of the family, Claude. However, Claude is the engine driving the family’s success. His sketches are the source of their inspired collection.

The family’s fate is changed when a young American photographer (Max Deacon) takes a shine to the beautiful seamstress Nina (Jenna Thiam), a girl who is hiding her own secrets in the shadows. Nina swiftly becomes the muse at the center of it all.

The Collection is by far and away the most beautiful show Amazon has produced. Every one of the Sabines’ designs look ready for a Vogue shoot and the shots themselves look like they were staged by Renaissance masters. It’s not just that this is a show about fashion that nails style — it’s a show that understands the value of sumptuous cinematography. The saturated colors, romantically-cast shadows, and classic Parisian vistas seduce you into submission. If nothing else, you can watch this show just for the pretty, pretty pictures.

But if you do want to turn on the sound and follow the action, you’ll notice that this international show has a unique approach to accents. You’ll hear American twangs, the Queen’s English, and French lilts on this show. Tom Riley explained to us that there was a very well-thought-out method behind the accents: “In this it’s a case of the Americans in the show are Americans. They’re from America. Everyone who’s English, who’s speaking with an English accent, is French and then everyone who’s French and speaking in a French accent is from Belgium. So there is a weird logic to it.”

“Paul, Richard and I and Yvette and Frances could’ve done French accents, but then that would’ve been weirdly hokey. Why are we speaking with French accents but we’re not speaking French? So, it was just an internal bit of logic that allowed us to have an international cast and also not get it too confusing,” Riley continued, before joking, “It was one thing where we were like, ‘Should we put a disclaimer? Should people know this?’ Otherwise we’re going to hear ‘Why are they all talking like that?'”